Tribute And a Preview
by ShadowedSword21
Summary: This a a tribute (I think?) and also a preview of a series I might start soon. Nothing too special. Just wanted to put my thoughts in paper, it's a sorry format though. With an Authors note at the end. Enjoy.


**Monty will always be a part of us. And I think that's what I mean to say in this little short. I'm going to debut a character for a series that I'm starting soon, or i hope I am, so tell me what you think. I won't reveal everything about him, but I will do just enough for a short and to convey what I mean. If the spaces are inconsistent it's because I did half of this on my phone. **

The day started normal for him. He got up, shaved, showered, brushed his teeth and got dressed. He didn't like the Beacon uniform, and since he had a combat class in the morning, he dressed in his usual gear.

The black shirt, covered by a vest with the four knife sheath on the lower back portion. He still hadn't gotten the full length jacket he requested to cover them, but he didn't mind much. He picked up the silver longsword, carefully crafted by his own two hands.

He sheathed it, checking the room Ozpin had assigned him until a team could be made to accommodate him or until one had an opening. He nodded, finding that it was in order, and mostly clean, then heading out. He locked the door, heading to class.

He arrived early, taking a seat on the bench right by the ring. Goodwitch was already there, meticulously checking the ring of unfair advantages or damages, before seeing it fit for combat. She walked up to him, giving him a hard stare.

"Are you prepared for class today . " She asked, using his last name.

"Yes ma'am and please. It's William. "He replied, shifting to show her the hilt of his sword, sheathed at his side.

"Good. Go ahead and get into the ring. You're opponent can be the next person present. " she said, ignoring him and walking to the door, her shoes echoing slightly on the hardwood floor.

William sighed, getting up and jumping into the ring. He hit the ground, rolling and straightening up. He shrugged his shoulders, working out the kinks in them. His opponent shouldn't be too much trouble and even if they were. He didn't feel motivated enough for honest, full on combat. He likely wouldn't even change weapon forms. Too much effort there.

Unfortunately, as soon as the door burst open, he realized that he couldn't. Not with who he'd be fighting. He bit his lip as he looked at the blonde, backing up a step as he watched Glenda explained to the blonde what was needed.

William's sea-green widened, a twinge of regret appearing in then as the blonde grinned, running and jumping into the ring. He swore, back pedaling and pacing around the ring.

"Of all the shitty..." He muttered, biting his lip as the other students trickled in.

Yang Xiao Long. If there was anything he'd learned in the last week being here. It was that this girl was feared. And for a very good reason.

"Yang." He greeted warily, getting his nerve back and stepping back up to face her. He shifted anxiously, uneager to start the fight.

"Don't you know my sister?" Yang asked, Smiling as her gauntlets expanded over her forearms.

He gulped. "Yes. She met me on the ride here my first day."

Yang hummed. "If you touch her I'll kill you." She threatened, her eyes narrowing suspiciously as he drew his own sword, and then one of the knives from his back. She frowned, noticing the knife was edgeless, but glowing a faint blue, like his Aura.

"You may start now." Glenda Goodwitch said watching them from a fair distance.

The telltale "Heeeyahh!" Was all that William got as a warning that one of Yang's deadly punches was on its way.

He jumped back, the wind from her punch remaining enough to cause him to stumble a bit. Yang didn't let the chance slip back her, following through and closing the distance with a single step. He grimaced as he watched her fist raise and then come down hard into his abdomen.

He hit the ground, bounced, Nd popped back up. Yang took a step back, looking to Glenda. She shook her head.

"He's not even at half Aura."she informed her as William got up, a hand over his stomach and a glowing blue shield protecting it. He smiled.

"That hurt." He said, moving his hand. The shield moved with it, the the Aura retraced, back into the bladeless knife in his off hand.

"Aura Blades. Interesting." Glenda muttered as the boy set up again, readying himself for Yang's next attack.

He didn't wait long as she jumped forward, launching a powerful punch. Once again his aura manifested outside of the blade, forming a shield and blocking the attack.

He pivoted around her as she started to follow up, his sleek compact form proving faster than her's as he lashed out, swiping at her with his sword.

Her punch abruptly stopped as she jerked the hand back to guard his attack, knocking it aside with her brutish strength. She paused, realizing something was off and jumping back.

William frowned, but smiled as he twirled the Aura Blade in his off hand, having changed it from a shield to a sword, intending to stab her before she could turn back to guard.

"Well this'll be fun." Yang said, cocking her gauntlets. William grimaced, unsure if his shield could withstand a propelled punch like that.

He didn't have much time to dwell on it though as she charged ahead, coming in low and meeting him with an uppercut. The chug of her weapon alerted him as the explosive impact slammed into his quickly manifested shield. The aura withstood it, but the force sent him skidding back on his heels.

"That's not going to work well." He muttered, quickly sheathing the knife and rotating his silver sword.

As Yang approached his weapon unfolded, the blade parting and rotating around into a curved staff, the blades of his sword at either end. He waited a moment for her next punch, holding the blades staff in one hand, his sea-green eyes analyzing every move she made.

He waited until the last possible second to jump, propelling and rotating his body up and over the punch. The staff came up, but instead of striking, a light blue string of carefully crafted Aura connected the tips of the two limbs. He pulled it back, his aura coiling quickly around the string, forming a broad head arrow in the string.

Yang had managed to turn around by the time he had it at full draw, though he had yet to land. He smirked as he released the arrow, even as Yang lashed out, intending to shatter his arrow before it could even touch her.

As her gauntleted fist touched his arrow, the carefully crafted Aura parted, snaking around her arm, and instead of dispersing, recoiled itself back to it original form. Yangs eyes widened as she jerked her head to the side, narrowly avoiding the arrow as it impaled in the ground.

"Mr. William." Glenda said as the boy landed, light on his feet. "Your Aura is in the red. That means you lose."

William sighed, flipping the twinblade back into a sword and turning to go. "Of course." He said. His semblance, drew from his Aura. It made extended fights difficult when blocking attacks required so much use of his Aura already. It didn't help that he couldn't use the Aura Blades effectively yet.

Yang sighed, staring at him. Her gauntlets retracted and she held a hand out to him. "Good match." She said.

He rolled his eyes. "Not really. But sure." He said taking her hand and giving it a firm squeeze. She nodded to him then they headed back to her respected seat and he his.

The rest of the class passed without incident. Though he noticed that a red cloaked girl seemed of today. And on closer inspection, all of team RWBY did. And in his next class, team JNPR seemed off as well. He chose not to comment. He didn't really know them. He had met Ruby, and the others through her, but he wouldn't say that he had any real right to ask.

So he was silent, until a certain red hooded girl ran into him in the hallway when he was exiting history. She stopped, but remained silent until he reached up, poking her cheek.

"Hey." He said "Ruby."

When she looked up at him he was surprised to see that her silver eyes were dark with sorrow, and confusion. He cocked his head to the side as she opened her mouth to speak, her lip quivering.

"What's wrong?" He asked, speaking first and likely interrupting her.

She started to speak, then fell silent, her voice failing to speak. So he pulled her out of the doorway and down the hall, out into the courtyard. She remained silent as he pulled her along by her wrist.

When they reached the benches outside he turned her around and sat her down. Then he simply crossed his arms, staring at her with a firm expression.

"So what's up?" He asked.

Her silver eyes returned his gaze as he glared at her. She shook her head and remained silent. So he resorted to the one trick he'd learned about her in the past week of knowing her.

He tickles her sides.

She managed to keep a straight face for a minute, her cheeks puffing out and slowly getting redder and redder as she held in her giggling. She lasted another minute after that before she burst out laughing, squirming away from him and falling on the ground. He smiled, watching her collect herself slowly.

"That was dirty." She finally said when she had stopped laughing. "No fair."

"Life wasn't meant to be fair." He replied. "Now what's up. Something is bothering you all. Team RWBY and team JNPR. What's up?" He asked.

Her face fell, and she moved to the bench, pulling herself up into the wooden seat. "It's just a feeling we all have." She replied, looking away.

He sighed, but pressed the matter. "Well tell me."

"Why?" She replied, adopting a passive position.

"Because it's bothering you and if it's bothering you then it would be better to talk about it." He replied.

"Talk?" She asked, her eyes shifting to glare at him. "Coming from you?" She raised an eyebrow. "You first."

He answered without hesitation. "My dad beat me as a child. He also sold me to pay off his debts. Your turn." He said, his sea-green eyes focused completely on her.

She sat up with a start, staring at him. "You're kidding. That's..." She fell silent, unable to express what she felt.

"In the past." He said. "And it's not something that can be changed. I have to live with it. All of it. And I have to accept it as who I am. And I did. I'm over it. I'm not who he was. And I never will be. Now tell me what's wrong." He persisted.

Ruby opened her mouth again, then sucked in a breath, settling back down in the bench. "I..."

He took the seat next to her, watching the petite girl struggle with her emotions for a little longer, until she seemed to sort out what to say.

"I feel like something is missing." She finally got out. "Not just anything, like... Like a thing thing. One of those things that you have that's important. I feel like I lost it. And it made me who I am today. But... No matter how hard I try to think about it, I don't know how to get it back." She huffed, pulling her knees to her chest and propping her head up on them.

William was silent for a while, turning her gaze from Ruby to the sky. He leaned back, watching the clouds for a while before he spoke. "Ruby." He started. "This is the way I look at something like that. And I started looking at it like this when my mom died. Well she was murdered, but that's another story for another time." He said.

"I never knew that. You don't tell anyone anything about yourself." She interrupted.

"Maybe I would if you didn't interrupt me." He cut in, shooting her an annoyed glare. She wilted a little under the hard gaze, but perked up again when he rolled his eyes and continued.

"The way I see it. Life is like music. You start off with a normal set to notes, and every event you go through, every loss every friend, every change affects that. They move the notes about and shift them or remove them. With each passing friend you change just a little inside. At least that's how I look at it. And when you die, that music score, that is what defines your life. We all come In and go out in the same way. We all get born. And we all die. What matters is what happens in between those years." He explained. "And what you lost..." He hesitated saying it, but continued. "When you lose something important, you can't help but reach out for help. It cannot be replaced. But that's why it's important in the first place. So instead of replacing it, remember it, and keep moving forward. Your life is constantly changing. Don't lose sight of that just because you're searching for what you lost."

Ruby paused, "Are you telling me to forget?" She asked.

William smiled and shook his head. "Not at all. I didn't forget my mom. Remember what it is. Don't forget it. Accept that life changes. And if it's a person, then remember that they don't want you in one place. If it's a thing, remember that even if you don't find it, it lives in your memory for as long as you do. You can't wait around forever. Keep going. I'm sure that's what needs to be done. Did that help?" He asked.

Ruby nodded slowly. "Yeah. But, I still miss it. That thing that made me who I am."

William smiled. "Then that means it was important enough to remember. It will hurt. But that is a hurt that you can share. With friends, family and loved ones." He explained.

She smiled, reaching out and hugging the boy. "Thank you Will." She said. Then she was gone, off running to her team, a broad smile on her face as she tackled her sister, hugging her fiercely.

William smiled and got up, digging a picture out of his back pocket. It was worn, the creases were nearly starting to tear and the photo on it was faded. But he could still see the long blonde hair of the woman in it, smiling as her son as she handed him a cookie, her other hand tangled in his black locks, ruffling it fondly like only a mother would. He hummed softly, folding it up with care, and carefully slipping it back into his pocket.

**That's it guys. Hope you liked it. That's my debut of William. And my thoughts. Sort of. The rest are in the following paragraph. That way, you don't have to read them! Review, tell me your opinion in William, and how well I did portraying the RWBY cast. Thanks. **

**Alright. Here we go. **

**It is my personal belief that Monty Oum was an inspiration to us all. In the least he inspired me. You can see above that I'm a writer, and I remember watching Haloid and the Dead Fantasys and loving the fighting. And so I changed my style. My fight scenes are now a written interpretation of Monty Oums. I do my best to flesh out details, and really describe what each fighter is doing. I like how Monty made everything flow really smoothly. **

**Another point is his creativity. He always seemed to have an idea. Some little twinkling of a thought running rampant in his head. If I recall, he drafted this series on napkins with ketchup at ihop at like. Three in the morning. (I might be wrong. Check some podcasts or something. Or one of his RWBY boards) it always seemed so cool to me how he visualized things. He just made it all fit together. I mean. Sniper scythe. Right? **

**But I think my final point would be this. And I don't know If I really have a right to say this either. But. I will anyway. I don't think he'd want us to be sad. Per se. I think he's far more interested in what we'll do now. I'm sure you're all familiar with semblances. So this is my theory. Just as each character has his or her power. We have ours. I can write. Maybe not good but I'll get there. And I think Monty really wants us to go as far as we can go with that. I think he wants to inspire us to do more than we think we can and to really show the world who we are. Each of his characters were unique. Each had a specific power that they used to protect and fight for what they believed in. And I think that's what Monty want us to do. Now. Keep in mind. I'm 90% he didn't mean let's start a riot. I think he means we express our belief. And not back down when it's questioned or put to the test. Sure we might be wrong and yeah. We're gonna screw up. A lot. But we can build from that. If we don't have the courage to stand up for what we believe in, how will anyone else. If you can't show the world who you are you'll be swept up into a stream of commons people. And you might never find out who you are. Monty wanted us to be ourselves, and be creative, to be original. And strive to make something new. At least. That's what I think he did. I might be wrong. But. That's what I believe in. And that's something I won't back down from. **

**I might be a wimp and a nerd and have a passive personality. But I'm not afraid to say it or show It. I am who I am. And I won't change it. I will write as I do and while I do accept advice. If you don't like it. It is also your choice not to read it. So I think my point in this gibberish above is just... Do something new. Be creative. Don't limit yourself to what you can do. Because when you set limits saying you can't you end up looking back are realizing that you could. **


End file.
